Locals squabble with the state over the Big Sur Coastal Trail planning process.

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In the mid-1800s, two trails offered the only land-based routes into and out of Big Sur. The construction of a county road, and later Highway 1, smothered some parts of those trails, but others remained in use in state parks.

A 1972 state proposition called for a continuous hiking trail system along the California coast, and the 1976 Coastal Act required local jurisdictions to figure out where to put it. The Big Sur Coast Land Use Plan, drafted in the mid-’70s, also calls for continuous trail corridors parallel to the coast, but a central trail planning effort didn’t get off the ground for another 25 years.

A 2001 Assembly bill directed the Coastal Conservancy, in cooperation with the Coastal Commission and State Parks, to identify what was needed to complete the trail.  After two years of study, the agency reported that most of Big Sur’s existing segments, broken up by lengths along Highway 1, need “substantial improvement.” State law directed the Conservancy to take the lead in developing a blueprint for an improved, continuous trail. The federal grant requires a steering committee made up of key landowners – staff from state and regional parks departments, the Coastal Commission, CalTrans, land trusts and community members – to oversee the planning process.

While the notion of a coastal trail slogs through the decades, Big Sur’s existing trails evolve. New segments are built even as others go fallow, erode away down the slopes, or are washed out by the tides. Fences and gaps break up multiple trails through state parks. Some of the stretches along the bluffs, which offer the most breathtaking vistas, are crumbling into the sea.

In order to transform the coastal trail from a concept into a reality, Conservancy staff will need to identify existing trails, repair those in bad shape, and build new connecting paths. That’s where politics come in.